Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689715110 ISBN 13: 9780689715112

Publisher: Aladdin, 1991

Three robbers terrify the countryside until they are subdued by the charm of a little girl named Tiffany

About the Author:

Born in 1931 in Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France, Tomi Ungerer started drawing as a small boy. Drawing caricatures was a form of resistance for him whilst growing up under the Nazi occupation. Ungerer was not a true student -- described on his school-leaving certificate as a 'depraved and rebellious character' -- and instead of going to university, he hitchhiked around Europe, getting as far as Lapland. Inspired by his heroes Saul Steinberg, James Thurber, and Charles Addams, Ungerer landed in New York in 1956 with only $60 in his pockets and a suitcase full of drawings. He quickly found success as an illustrator and caricaturist, becoming a star almost overnight. He published his first book for children, The Mellops Go Flying, in 1957, and went on to publish eighty books over the next ten years, covering all aspects of his work.

Fluent in French, German, and English, Ungerer regards himself as Alsatian first and European second, and has described New York City, where he lived and worked for 15 years, as the love of his life. However, his firmly held and clearly expressed beliefs and opinions against racism, McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, against hypocrisy in any form made life in the U.S. increasingly difficult. He left the U.S. in 1971 on a sudden impulse, when he and his second wife Yvonne moved to a farm in Nova Scotia, where they raised sheep, pigs, and goats for a number of years, before moving to Ireland to raise their family. Tomi Ungerer now divides his time between his farm in Ireland, near the ocean that he loves, and Strasbourg, the city of his birth, where a museum dedicated to his work opened in late 2007.

Tomi Ungerer has said that while many people can see only good and evil, he is particularly interested in the no-man s land between the two, as this is the most interesting place to him, where lessons may be learned. In the 26 children's books due to be published by Phaidon, Ungerer covers themes such as prejudice, poverty, and the Holocaust, but his fantastic repertoire also includes such charming animals as Adelaide, the flying kangaroo, and Orlando, the courageous vulture. Ungerer aims to inspire children's curiosity and imagination with his books, but he also wants to let them know that it s okay to have problems, because you can always find the courage to fight them. Among the many aphorisms and mottoes he coins and collects, his favorite is ''Don't hope, cope!'' When it comes to his own life and work, Ungerer's three key principles are enthusiasm, discipline, and pragmatism. He is a firm believer in the importance of a good vocabulary, good manners, and the acquisition of practical skills such as cooking, first aid, and knot-tying, of creativity of any kind, because ''we are what we make.''

Ungerer is, above all, an internationally renowned artist and a superlative storyteller, Ungerer has received numerous awards for his work, including the Erich Kastner Prize for literature in 2003, the Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration in 1998, and the Jakob Burckhardt Prize of the Goethe-Stiftung, Basel, in 1983. In 1992, the American Bibliographic Institute named him one of 500 'World Leaders of Influence,' and in the same year, he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, for his contribution to cultural exchange and communication between France and Germany. The Council of Europe in Strasbourg named him an ambassador for children and education in 2000, and in 2002 Jack Lang, then minister of French education, named him an Officier de la Legion d Honneur.

Review:

"Watch the children, the subversive is back."—New York Times

"Tomi Ungerer has been proving the pen is mightier than the sword for six decades... [A] style marked by great originality of illustrative technique, and a use of language that refused to patronise his young readers."—Dazed & Confused

"His work was dark, wild, sometimes frightening. Maurice Sendak, a friend of Ungerer's, thought him the most original children's book writer of his time."—Sunday Telegraph

"Has delighted children around the world with his scarily enchanting style."—The Independent

"Phaidon Press [...] are in the process of bringing Tomi back into print with a distinction all of their own. In a reprint programme which is being carried out with careful attention to all aspects of printing and design, they have already given us excellent editions of The Three Robbers, Moon Man, Adelaide, the Flying Kangaroo and a handsomely revised and expanded edition of Far Out Isn't Far Enough, while last year they published the first edition in English of Otto."—Books for Keeps

"Maurice Sendak described Ungerer's work as passionate and personal - it's marvellous and it's cuckoo and it's that kind of veracity that's always made for good children's literature"—The New York Times, Outside In, Inside Out

"You can see his work repeated by lots of illustrators, it's just so strong and graphically interesting, as in The Three Robbers. His images attract both adults and children and I can see the pictures without remembering the titles. It's art - illustration at the highest level."—The Times

"Good news for children and fans of illustration alike... This story of three black-hatted, cape-wearing thieves and their unexpected encounter with a little orphan girl has lost none of its charm. It's all inky shadows and night-sky blues, making for a refreshingly dark tale for youngsters... Robbing loot has never looked like so much fun."—Creative Review

"Dark and delightful."—Grafik

"Tomi Ungerer is highly original. This is a famous book, illustrated in a bold, simple graphic style. The robbers steal a girl called Tiffany, who asks them what they want to do with the money they've accumulated. Suddenly, as if by a miracle, they become good." —Axel Scheffler, author of The Gruffalo, The Times, Saturday Review